China welcomes Greece’s veto on EU Human Rights statement

As expected, China welcomed Greece’s move to block a European Union statement on the country’s human rights record. “Chinese experts on Sunday called for fairness and greater understanding of human rights record in China, Chinese Global Times writes. According to the experts and analysts, China and EU have different approach on the definition of Human Rights.

Greece blocked an EU statement at the United Nations that criticized China’s human rights record. The EU was due to make its statement last week at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, but failed to win the necessary agreement from all 28 EU states.

It should be noted and understood that China and some European countries have a different focus and criteria to evaluate human rights, Chang Jian, director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights in Nankai University, told the Chinese newspaper Global Times on Sunday, after returning from a Geneva conference on human rights on Wednesday.

“China paid more attention to people’s survival and development rights, while European or Western countries focus more on citizens’ political rights and freedom,” Chang elaborated.

For China, the most important and urgent human rights issue is to improve people’s living standards, which require a stable social order that comes with some restrictions, Chang said.

For developing countries that face a greater threat of social conflict, human rights can never be protected if the social order is broken, experts said.

European countries also have different challenges and policies on human rights, Chang added.

Stable countries are more relaxed on individual freedoms, while those that face terrorist attacks and an immigration crisis, such as the UK and France, shift to greater restrictions, he said.

Experts said unfair blame and accusations made without proper investigation do not contribute to the global exchange on human rights. (GlobalTimes)

Meanwhile, several Human Rights organizations call on the European Union to cancel its upcoming human rights dialogue with China and suspend the exchange until the meetings can bring genuine human rights improvements, seven human rights organizations said on Monday. . The next EU-China human rights dialogue is scheduled for June 22-23, 2017, in Brussels. The organizations include Amnesty International, Initiatives for China, the International Campaign for Tibet, the International Service for Human Rights, Human Rights in China, Human Rights Watch, and the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.